#Trespasser felt like it should have been part of the main game bc of how much it bridges to the story

[pausegame]

Always gonna hold out hope DA games have like an Origin DLC where players get to experience their chosen protagonist's backstory a la DA:O bc those are still so good, and I really wanted more context for my Inquisitor 🥲

[mistresstrevelyan]

morwinyon replied to your post “Considering that the devs of Dragon Age expect at least three more...”

Speaking of DA:I and ME:A - since you work in the industry, do you have insight on why open-world RPGs are the big thing right now? Is it all because of the success of Skyrim?

Here’s my take on that, though it can only go so far:

Open world RPGs have a long and vast tradition. The other main series that immediately comes to mind when thinking of a popular franchise is 3DO’s Might & Magic from VI to VIII and later on X. These were done in the 90ties when party based RPGs where mainly dungeon crawlers with slightly cliche but lovingly rendered quests and environments. (I stand by my opinion that NO other RPG can match Might & Magic VI and VII when it comes to sheer ambience) 

It made WAVES in ways that are felt to this day. IE DAI using char/companion portraits to show the health status of the characters? Might & Magic VI did that and more. (Chars changed when sick, tired, weakened, poisoned, crazed, turned to stone, dead.....)

Bethesda followed suit with its later TES installments (Morrowind, Oblivion and then Skyrim ofc) while BioWare remained a bastion of tightly knit plots, “limited environments” (Some people called them “tubed” bc you can’t really explore a lot post Jade Empire (ME1′s dead planets were....that. Dead) and its focus on relationships, characters and so on.

What it comes down to are three things:

1) Money. Skyrim sold 25+ million copies (If not more) to this day. This is INSANELY successful for ANY kind of game but esp. for an RPG. This led to something I like to call the 3D effect. Because a similar trend all but extinguished the Adventure genre around 1999-2000. The focus on 3D in a genre that thrived on semi 3D, 2D and FMV to tell great stories, engage with puzzles and immersion.... It killed golden franchises like the Gabriel Knight franchise and led, in part, to SIERRA’s fate. It’s what’s happening to the RPG genre now. Because for all of Skyrim’s success....and TW3′s acclaim........TW3′s open world are basically vast maps filled with trash loot and bandit camp locations. Pretty as they are, they lose their appeal mighty quick. DAI’s open world is even emptier, only made fun by companion banter. ME:A’s open world was a better option but also had issues. This is where, for all its missteps, Kingdom Come: Deliverance delivered BECAUSE it has only ONE map, a SMALLER map and a map based on REAL locations. 

2) BioWare has begun CHASING trends instead of SETTING them. Let’s be real, without BioWare there would be NO CDPR or Witcher games as they were. (BioWare literally let CDPR borrow their Aurora Engine for TW1 as well) And I think they NEED to get off Bethesda’s tail and go back to what they do best. Tight narratives, enthralling characters, choices and consequences......the best recent example of their own making would be Trespasser. I DO think it’s good for a studio to try something ENTIRELY different (IE Anthem) but for DA4 and any possible ME sequel they should, I believe, go back to semi open worlds.

3) I believe the MAIN reasoning behind the VAST opening up of DA’s and ME’s maps were the reaction to how confining DAII’s setting and repeated maps felt and people responding well to stuff like LEGACY and Mark Of The Assassin. (NVM Skyrim hitting the shelves during the SAME YEAR) 

Overall? Massive worlds SELL. SP RPG players are complaining but the numbers speak a different language. The Battlefronts, Battlefields, Skyrims and Fallouts of the last years made stockholders happy. Taking risks has become too hot, even to supposed visionaries like CDPR (Who are now also beholden to stockholders). ME:A’s reception, strange as it may seem, has been yet another step AWAY from SP RPGs being a “good risk”. 

To succeed and for publishers/devs to give/get the budget to make ‘em, SP RPGs must be feasible, market trendsetters and moneymakers. With massive projects like Cyberpunk 2077 struggling and BioWare struggling for its identity....it looks like this trend will continue on for quite some time.